Critical reviews of restoration, monitoring, or mitigation documents and plans.

Interpreting soils information for project analysis and alternative development.

Landscape evaluation using advanced remote sensing tools (TEUI toolkit, 3D visualization, viewshed analysis).

On-site soil and landscape investigations

Outlining and Determining Desired Future Condition: What is it? How will it look? How will we know when we get there? And if we are heading the right direction?

Trail management: What are some guiding principles in arid-land trail maintenance? What restoration techniques work? Where are our biggest problem areas? How can we get better integration of specialists' and management's concerns?

The importance of soils in our management activities: How do we better use existing soils data in our management decisions? What are the soils and landscapes in our Units, and what ways could we better display them?

Habitat modeling now does not generally consider soils and their effects: How can we make soils data available in a form that will be better used?

Bighorn sheep and other species (such as Mexican Spotted Owl): How can we integrate the experts' technical opinions and data to synthesize information that can be used in habitat analysis? How do we integrate cross boundary data (BLM and NPS)?

Tech Transfer: How can we better package and present technical information for management?

Invasives: How can we better estimate and map the extent of the invasive problem? How can we report our successes and the extent in a spatially explicit way?

NEPA and Proposed Uses: How do we examine and illustrate the potential impacts of new proposed uses of our Units, e. g. base jumping? How do we integrate management data with scientific data to estimate where and how much?

Specialist Data: How can we better synthesize, spatially link, and present our specialist monitoring data (especially the piles in file drawers)?

Vegetation change using remote sensing: How can satellite data help us show effects of reducing grazing? And even show earlier spring greenup with climate change?

Road Restoration: Where should we re-route roads and why? What factors should we consider? How do we spatially display our logic and decisions?
Fire Ecology: Directed Vegetation Inventory – Existing Western Juniper, Ponderosa Pine inventory using remote sensing;
habitat prediction model development using landscape features (aspect, elevation); explore potential for monitoring Western Juniper density using remote sensing
 
    Soils Effects from Fire – Prescribed Burns and Wildfire Effects – Interpretations of BAER maps, literature-base
 
    Soil – Landscape Inventory Upgrade and Interpretations include as sources updated surficial geology, vegetation, older information, landscape position analysis; field checks
 
    Decision Support Models – Demonstration applications for LABE
 
    Multi-Resource Optimization of Trail Locations
 
    Cheatgrass monitoring – explore use of imagery to monitor changes in populations
 
    Wildlife – species monitoring data spatial aggregation and correlation with landscapes
 
    Scientific visualization of landscape relationships to resources
 
    Viewshed development and mapping
 
    Support to NRCA process

You might want a series of maps, all presentation quality, on the resources in each of your Admin Units, spatially highlighting the themes we have talked about. I know your GIS tech. could do that, but he/she probably is buried in other projects. However, it might be good to be able to present in Powerpoints and on the walls, especially for park management. It could include landscapes and vegetation to illustrate some of the resource data you have.

More problems I could help solve:

Your trails inventory needs GPS’ing and updating (from field to final maps and data to NPS or FS standards).

You have had a 200 acre wildfire, and need it’s actual extent, severity of burn, and probable effects mapped and documented.

You have a small project NEPA evaluation, but need soils, vegetation, landscape, information, and a science-based evaluation of alternatives.

Your wildlife specialist has paper maps of critical habitat, but needs to create high-quality spatial data and apply it in a small project.

You need Regional GIS data from multiple agencies to support your monitoring on your “Vital Signs” monitoring projects.

You have old, but good quality monitoring data in old document formats and need them in a National database structure.

You need a friendly ACCESS database to record your archeological site data, compatible with and uploadable to Regional centers.

You need soils expertise to implement your soil structure and viability monitoring protocol, or to update your soil inventory.

1. Climate Change and Effects on Plant and Animal Species
Problem Statement: Recent and predicted climate change
will affect plant and animal species in your National Park, particularly on those near the edges of their habitat ranges. We need to estimate the nature and extent of these changes to plan
management activities to adapt to or mitigate those changes, particularly for T and E species.
b. Objective: To develop preliminary guidance for future assessments of the effects of current and future climate change on important species. This is based on current data and models. Little new data will be developed. c. Process: Clarify objectives with clients. Research
current state of knowledge. Development of project specifications and study plan.
d. Deliverables: Report including study plan, appropriate maps, spatial data gathered for the project.

2. Soil and Vegetation – Interim Development of Inventories for Management
Problem: There is no ongoing soil survey program for your National Park and the NPS vegetation inventory is just beginning, though there are some data on both resources. For present management we need interpretations from these existing but scattered data.
Objective: To synthesize existing information into the best possible inventory of soils and vegetation
Process: Research current state of spatial soils and vegetation knowledge, including university research, agency work and existing data in DEVA. Using this data, synthesize the best possible inventory subject to scientific and administrative criteria. Produce maps and management interpretations.